Self serving



HIHIIFI] 0- I Inventor D. D. SICHER.

SELF seavms APPLIANCE.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 2, l9l9.

Patented Oct. 28,1919.

DUDLEY D. SICHER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SELF-SERVING APPLIANCE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 28, 1919.

Application filed m 2, 1919. Serial No. 308,265.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DUDLEY D. SICHER, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Self-Serving Appliances, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This application for Letters Patent is based upon an improvement in the means employed in such establishments as are known as cafeterias for facilitating the selfserving operations followed in their conduct. Its nature and purpose will be most readily understood from a brief statement of what is involved in such operations.

Assume an eating establishment Where all customers go to certain counters with the necessary dishes, cups, glasses and the like and receive such articles of food and drink as they may call for and then proceed with their meal to small tables where they sit and consume it. Serving and other facil ities being entirely absent, and space being usually a desideratum in the reduction of expense, it is desirable that there should be no waste table space, and this means that all temptation to crowding and interference with the comfort and convenience of others should be, as far as possible eliminated.

In seeking to solve the more important problems involved in such operation, I have devised the following plan: In the eating room I arrange a number of small square tables each capable of seating four persons. Each customer on entering selects from a pile, a tray on which he places such dishes or cups as he may need and these he has filled at the proper counters. This tray is of a shape and size to cover one fourth of a table and each table is conveniently de signed so that one tray will or can occupy thereon no more than its allotted space, and is preferably formed in such way that a space is left at the center, after all the trays are placed on it, for such articles as salt cellars, pepper boxes and the like.

By this means each person will have his full share of space and can appropriate no more than this, for whether he places his tray at a vacant table or one partially occupied, it fills the space provided for it and no more.

In the drawings I have shown square tables, and substantially triangular trays, but this is not arbitrary, although most convenient and on the whole most economical,

and may serve as an illustration of the invention. I now refer to this drawing in explanation of the details of the invention.

Figure 1 is a top plan view of'a table equipped with its trays.

gig. 2 is a cross sectional view of the same, an

Fig, 3 is a detail of a desirable form of center for the table.

The tables A are preferably square and adapted to seat four persons. The trays B are substantially triangular and substantially one fourth of the area of the table. Preferably they are formed with rounded corners so that when placed on a table a space C will be left vacant, and inthis space may be placed salt cellars, pepper bottles and the like.

As a matter of convenience any kind of limiting stop or guide as D may be used in the center against which the apices of the triangular trays will abut. This may be a block of wood either with or without raised edges, as shown.

The trays may be of any suitable material,

but are preferably of aluminum. They may be stacked at any convenient and accessible point and are used in the manner above set forth. Practical experience has demonstrated fully the value and lmportance of this plan. It facilitates self-service, it avoids confusion, it tends to preserve order and makes for the comfort and convenience of all concerned.

What I claim is:

1. As a means for facilitating self-service in cafeterias, the combination with square tables of substantially triangular trays with rounded corners, four of which cover practically all of the available surface of a table except a space at the center.

2. .As a means for facilitating self-service in cafeterias, the combination with square tables having raised central guide spaces, of four triangular trays with rounded corners adapted when placed against such central guides to cover substantially all the rest of the available space on the surface,-

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

DUDLEY D. SICHER. 

